Blood Ties, Part 38
The sounds of Khaytala and Ceriss' departing footsteps grow fainter, leaving silence in their place as you stand in your mistress' chambers. Lily looks up at you, worry in her eyes. Not for herself, though that would be the natural response to learning that her summoned demon harbors the kind of threat that is even now growing inside you. No... her concern is for you, for the grim fate that you're facing.
"Do you... think there will be more demons like that one you faced with Ceriss?" she asks hesitantly. "Trying to reunite with their master?"
You smile, offering her all the confidence you can. "I doubt there was more than one of them on this world," you say. "It sounded as though they'd spread out as far as they could. Going into hiding, while they waited for their master's return. Still... it wouldn't be surprising if some of them are watching closely for any signs and auguries of me. If any of them ever do discern which world I fled to... we may have to face them before the end."
Lily nods. "What will you do?"
"First and foremost?" you say. "The same thing I've been doing all along. Dealing with these heroines. Keeping you safe. What happens after that..."
You glance down at your palm, at the four glowing runes. Four out of ten. Six more to go until you face your ultimate fate. "What happens after that... I'll deal with it when it comes."
Lily's eyes widen at your declaration that you will protect her no matter what. Then she looks down, unable to meet your eyes. "Is there anything I can do to help you?" she asks, in a tiny voice. "Anything at all?"
You place a hand on her arm, guiding her over to some nearby chairs where the two of you sit. "There is one thing," you say. "With your power, I think you could strengthen the seal that Ceriss put on my brand. It should help me stay more in control, when I'm out there. I'll have more of a fighting chance, even as the bastard's power grows."
The young Witch Queen nods urgently, taking your right hand in both of hers as you hold it out to her. You can feel her smaller, softer fingers trace over your palm. The contact feels strangely intimate, for all that it is slight. Quietly, you start to walk Lily through what she needs to do, calling on your newfound intellect to explain the best method for applying her immense reserves of arcane energy. She listens closely to you, nodding and asking questions through the course of the impromptu lesson.
The hours pass quickly, the two of you lost in your own little world. Until finally she's ready to cast the spell.
She takes up her gnarled wooden staff, her expression intent as she calls on everything you taught her. The red crystal at the staff's tip blazes to life, crimson energy radiating outward, permeating the room as the air starts to swirl around you. Her fingers trace the sigils that the two of you practiced across your palm, reciting the incantation in a clear, firm voice.
Ceriss' seal lights up, its existing runes coming to life at the new infusion of power layered on top of it. Your brand comes to life as well, the infernal energies blazing in fury at being restrained even more. You can feel bursts of intense pain shooting up the entire length of your arm, as the parasitic Demon Lord makes his displeasure known. He is not happy with this latest development.
Good.
Lily's voice rises in volume, her face intent with concentration as she strains, desperate to make this work. Calling on all her might, she traces the spell again, and then once more, fingers trembling as she completes the incantation.
There is one final pulse of magic... and then it is done. The reinforcing spell winds into place around the existing one, bolstering it, the two powers synergizing. Lily slumps back, breathing hard from the contest. You give her an approving nod. It's no mean feat to match powers against one of the rulers of Hell—even a restrained one. She looks back with a growing grin. Shaky... but exuberant at the success that you've achieved working together.
You flex your fingers, concentrating. But you can hear no trace of the intruder's thoughts in your head. For the moment, the sheer strength of the seal has rendered him completely dormant, and you should be able to function as though he weren't even there.
How long that will last, though, as more runes activate and he can bring more and more of his true power to bear... that you can't say.
You and Lily barely have much time to bask in your achievement before the door is flung open and Verika looks inside. Upon seeing the two of you relaxing, however, she does as well. "I heard you were back, and I was just on my way here to make my report when I heard something going on in here," the drow ranger explains. "Is everything alright?"
"We were just doing a little sorcery," you say. "Lily is proving quite the skilled mage." The Witch Queen blushes a little at your praise, still riding the high of pulling off the feat.
Verika smiles as well. "Good to hear," she says. "There's interesting news from the Underworld as well. If you want to hear it now...?"
"Of course," you say. You hadn't given her any orders to take specific action against the existing powers when you sent her down there, only telling her to infiltrate and discover what she could, keeping abreast of the political situation as it evolves in preparation for future moves. "What have you learned?"
"The situation is chaotic and fragmented, like we expected," Verika says. "Lady Eshosi of House Thesolan took advantage of that to make a play for the seat of Matriarch. Probably in hopes of getting enough power to win the war you tricked her into fighting against her own power base within the Church of Melca."
You smirk at the memory. "I can't imagine she's in a strong position either, waging a civil war in her own camp."
"Definitely not," agrees Verika. "Though with House Ravahorn disgraced by my sister's failure and treachery, and House Cendiath having their leader and many of their high-ranking leadership all blown up by a gnome, she must have thought everyone else was in bad enough shape that she might be able to pull it off."
Then Verika shakes her head. "But she miscalculated. Lady Mykra of House Eselvar threw her support behind the remnants of House Ravahorn and House Cendiath, promoting Lady Pheshera's daughter as the new Matriarch. And even though House Eselvar isn't one of the three High Noble Houses that the Matriarch can come from, they had nearly as much soft power as the High Noble Houses did, even before you went and wrecked them. And since Lady Mykra came out of our adventure relatively unscathed, she's the true power in the Underworld now. Even if no one says it out loud."
"Do you think she might be angling to have her house instated as High Nobility?" you muse. "Is that even possible?"
"It would require an appeal to Melca herself," explains Verika. "And that isn't Lady Mykra's style. But I did some more digging, and I learned what she's really after. She's courting favor with the heir of House Cendiath, yes... but also the heir of House Ravahorn. They're both young, inexperienced, and in way over their heads. Sacrificial lambs, really. The House leadership knows that there's a bloody reckoning coming. They don't want to draw attention. Right now, they want expendable figureheads while they try to run things from behind the scenes."
"And Lady Mykra is taking advantage of that?" you ask.
"Of course," says Verika. "She wants to run things from behind the scenes as well. But she's taking a bit more of a direct approach. I eavesdropped on her preparations for days, and she's planning a huge ritual of the most depraved sort of magic, with all her clan's sorceresses. In the next few weeks, she's going to invite both heirs over for a private dinner. They won't be able to refuse, since they depend on her for their survival."
Verika's eyes narrow. "And once they get there, they're going to be reduced to soulless, hollowed out husks. Then possessed by servitor spirits bound to Lady Mykra by a geas. Then if she can make either of them Matriarch, she'll effectively be ruling the entire Underworld herself. High Noble House or no."
Well. Lady Mykra is certainly making the most of the power vacuum you left behind in the wake of your rescue mission. However, this could also work toward your advantage in a similar way. You now know that three leaders of the various factions in Underworld politics are going to be together in one secluded location. It may be possible to either assassinate or subvert them in one fell swoop.
You might be able to have Verika seduce the inexperienced drow, if you gave her demonic aphrodisiac from a Corruptive Boon. Especially if they are bound, betrayed and then rescued by her from certain doom into the throes of bliss. But if you also wanted to subvert someone as strong-willed and wily as Lady Mykra herself, instead of killing her... well, you might want to consider sending Rysanial along with Verika. Otherwise you might end up with... willful complications. At the very least.
It's a chance to subvert or further sideline three factions for the price of one. If you did want to pursue what you and Verika talked about back in her village, eventually breaking Melca's grasp on the Underworld, reducing her worship and weakening her in preparation for the final battle, this could be a powerful step in that direction.
The drawback, of course, is that this opportunity is time sensitive. If you do want to do anything with this opportunity, it'll need to happen while you're hunting the next heroine, or the chance will be gone.
"Good work," you say, musing over the possibilities. "We'll need to give it some thought before we decide what to do. But either way, it's good to know the direction that events are taking down there. What about Kovora itself, though? Was there any trouble here, while I was gone?"
"Not yet," Verika says. "Like we expected, tensions have been building over that spy that her majesty didn't punish. But you left enough loyal forces on guard here to make Varthurg hesitant to try anything. Not yet, anyway. And it's given Rysanial all the time in the world to work on the warchief's son. I think it's all going to come to a head in the next day or two. You might want to find Rysanial and talk to her before it does."
"Good idea," you say, rising to your feet, then give your mistress a smiling bow. "If you'll excuse me, your majesty?"
Lily agrees, turning back to some paperwork while you exit. Soon you and Verika are searching the fortress for your succubus. You spend a few minutes combing up and down stairways, checking for where she might be.
In the course of your search, you happen to hear Ceriss' muffled voice from behind one of the doors as you walk past. "...can't stop thinking about it," she says. Her voice is trembling, and you can hear the tears she's fighting to choke back. "What he did to those girls. What he must have done to... to her, back then. What it took for me to be... the reason I was even..."
Her voice breaks, and it's a few moments before she can continue, barely audible. "Goddesses... she must have hated me."
"Shhh..." Now you hear Khaytala's comforting voice. From how close they are, you can tell that she's holding Ceriss close as she consoles her. Your mind's eye creates an image of the fighter's bigger frame, her muscular arms wrapped protectively around her friend's smaller body. "That voice you hear, telling you that? That's a lie. It wasn't you who put your mother through any of that. And you can't blame yourself for it."
The faint ghost of a sad smile briefly crosses your face, as you recognize the echo of your words to Khaytala around the campfire. When she bared her heart to you about her mother.
Even though Ceriss and her are from entirely different walks of life... even though they might not understand each other very well on most days... Khaytala more than anyone else must have understood what Ceriss was truly going through, after the devastating revelations about the circumstances of her birth. And it triggered her fierce protective instinct, the desire to help her friend weather the path that Khaytala has already walked for so long.
Quickly and quietly you hurry away, putting enough distance between you and that room that not even your inhuman hearing can pick out the rest without actively focusing. Which you don't do, giving the two heroines their privacy.
The next person you bump into is not Rysanial either, but rather Ghazar, leader of your Corrupted Orcs. He gives you a respectful nod. "Sir. Report for you, if you got time."
"Certainly," you say. "What happened while I was gone?"
"Pretty quiet," says Ghazar. "Quiet like the calm before the storm, maybe. But still, quiet. Warchief's drumming up dissent, like always. But no action. With us and a heroine here, it must not have looked like a good bet with what he had."
Then he hesitates for a moment. "And... sir, there's... a question I promised I'd ask you."
You raise an eyebrow. "Go ahead."
Rather than ask immediately, he gestures another orc over. This one is female, and younger then him, probably in her late teens. She's a little bit shorter than you, with ragged, close-cropped black hair, cute tusks, and a strong body shown off to good effect by the simple, midriff-baring clothing she wears.
"This... is my sister," Ghazar says, placing a meaty hand on her head and ruffling it, to her obvious chagrin. "Been watching out for her ever since our father died in the last war, and mother years before that. Wasn't much I could teach her of woman's work... but I taught her to fight, since it was all I knew either. And she can more than hold her own."
"And I'm not the only one!" the orc girl speaks up, fire in her eyes. "There's plenty of other women who want to help protect our home! And when I saw Khaytala serving Kovora as a warrior, it inspired me! If you'd only just give us a chance...?"
This raises interesting possibilities. From what you've been able to gather, orc women aren't usually seen on the front lines, preferring to keep them back in Kovora, and pregnant, bringing forth the next generation of warriors to join their fathers and brothers on the battlefield.
Of course, in your Corrupted Orcs there's a much greater focus on fucking the opposition into submission. Which might make it useful to have as varied a force as possible.
You could unequivocally accept volunteers from among the female orcs, increasing your numbers with any that wish for a more adventurous life than pumping out babies, though this might cause consternation among more traditional orcs.
Though of course, if everything works out, Rysanial will be dealing with Varthurg—the main rallying figure of the traditional camp—in a day or two. So that may not be quite so pressing a concern as it would have been, had you not taken such swift and decisive action already. Even so, it might still cause some measure of friction somewhere along the line; it's hard to know for sure.
Alternatively, you could accept the women as camp followers, allowing them to help the army in a somewhat adventurous way, while still avoiding the stigma of making them outright warriors. Corruptive Boons would also allow them to control their own breeding, giving them that benefit as well. Less benefit to your fighting force, but more in line with tradition.
Finally, you could simply decline, and not change anything about your recruiting practices. If it's been working well so far, some might make an argument for not rocking the boat at all.
